How the Niflheim did Hilgya blow that save? Clerics get good Will saves, and they basically can't have low Wisdom mods (it might be fitting for a personality like Hilgya to be unwise, but just the fact she can cast Flame Strike puts her at or above a +2, even if she chooses to make unreasonable life choices which she is Wise enough to recognize as such). A natch 1 is all I can think of, but Loki ought to have some influence in this situation to prevent such "misfortunes".

It's always a pity we cannot see how many of the vampires are left.
But with the hypnosis/mind control, one is sufficient.

Law of inverse ninjutsu. Regardless of the number of opponents, they collectively present an equally difficult challenge. Otherwise the situation would unbalance in one direction or the other very easily...either numbers would always win, or final boss battles would be anticlimactic mopups.

Nice change of pace, even if the new one raises more questions than answers. (I've been loving this plotline, but it's getting hard to take how long it's taking to get to a resolution. At least we could switch over and see what Team Evil or the two paladins are doing for a strip or two, and then come back to the main plot.)

I was kind of hoping that Belkar had actually managed a Natch 20 on one of his Will Saves, and the sunglasses prevented us from noticing the lack of swirly-eyes, that he was "method acting" by stabbing Blackwing (who isn't much of a factor in the battle, and Minrah is only barely one either, so this isn't even the level of jackassery we expect from Belkar anymore), and that he was going to watch for an opening in the battle and sneak up behind Not-Durkon in order to throw both daggers at him and take him out, or at least disrupt his concentration on the Shell. We know he actually has feelings on the Durkon subject, so this would be a very appropriate time to fulfill his death prophecy by having him take the vampire out, with one last badass line about the twist. Maybe reveal that he's finally shaken an Evil alignment enough that he could stealth-activate his Protection from Evil brooch? It would have been cool, I think.

Does anti-life shell only hurt people trying to pass through, or is drakulon in the process of breaking his promise?

Anti-Life Shell doesn't hurt anyone. It simply prevents passage through the Shell. Even if Not-Durkon threw Baby Kudzu at the shell as hard as he could, all that would happen would be that the baby would pass safely through the Shell, which only works to stop creatures who are trying to move through it. (Obviously, someone outside the bubble would have to grab him before he hit the ground, but as long as that happened, and we leave the concept of Shaken Baby Syndrome in the same place we put every other thing Vaarsuvius has explicitly told us not to think about too hard, he'd be fine.) Either that or the Shell would collapse because Not-Durkon tried to use it as a weapon, not sure which. But it can't be used to restrain anyone, let alone harm them; it only prevents them from reaching you.

So at least three of the five family members from 1088 Hall Past are the corpses shown in panel 5 of 1128. Curiously, they're all males: 2nd from left is Kandro, middle is Thirden, and rightmost is Hoskin. The blonde female is probably Shirra, though we can't be sure since the hair is changed. It's not clear whether Cousin Logann is a sex-changed version of the woman 2nd from right; more likely Logann is the son of an "Aunt" who was that slain dwarf, hence the term "Cousin". I think she might be the woman who appears in 962 Just Think How Many Times He's Seen Himself Naked, in which Logann is probably the boy playing Smite The Tree with Durkon.

Good catches! Thanks for pointing those out! So that's where he got the huge family. I think that the blonde miner probably is Shirra, and the lady next to cousin Logann in 1088 might be the fifth slain miner. And I suspect you're right about 962, as well. I wonder where Durkon is going with this story. It doesn't seem to be distracting Durkula, although it did confuse him.

Eagerly awaiting the plot twist, or what this is supposed to lead to... Durkon did seem like he might have a plan in the past, didn't he..? Would this scene actually confuse the vampire that thoroughly..?

This doesn't seem strong enough a story to distract this Vampire, but Durkon may have more knowledge about the background of this Vampire, and how he can hurt him mentally. We may not have enough of a background.

Epic. But STILL not quite a conclusion. Really want to see this storyline completed, even though it's been awesome, so we can get back to Xykon, fulfill all the prophecies, and get some closure, before I die of old age or something.